


Chapter 50

by orphan_account



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 04:53:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17594981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Actor Eren Yeager suddenly sees his costar Mikasa Ackerman in a new light when filming a certain scene for the hit show "Attack on Titan."





	Chapter 50

There was a blood-curdling scream.

Eren dropped to his knees, elbows digging into the rough earth below him in a mournful, _regretful_ tabletop position. He cursed the world’s horrific food web that he so helplessly fell at the bottom of, the innate weakness that resided within humanity all too much of a burden to bear. He cursed himself for the blood on his hands, both literally from biting his calloused palm so hard in a futile attempt to transform, and metaphorically for all the bodies that piled underneath his feet—the deaths of all too many amounting to absolutely nothing. He’d heard it several times before, all of the superior officers and that idiotic Jean warning Eren that he needed to prove his worth, to prove that the hefty cost of priceless, innocent lives was worth paying—that Eren truly _was_ _that valuable_.

But he realized he wasn’t. He wasn’t valuable in the slightest. No, Eren Yeager wasn’t worth _anything_ , actually. The mountain of bodies underneath his two feet was absolutely profitless, reality settling in all too heavily as Eren witnessed his blonde, adoptive father-figure split in half, sporadic guts and crude crimson showering the defeated shifter. It was funny, truly, how he convinced everyone—his friends, the Survey Corps, humanity, even himself—that he was worth their lives, when in all reality, he was nothing but an easy ticket to a pointless death. He was a conman—the selfish thief of willing, innocent souls. How pathetic.

The air filled with the cruelest soundtrack—the different sounds of horrific screaming met by what could only be described as a crushed watermelon, presumedly the nightmarish, _nauseating_ song that played on loop when titans ate his comrades, ate human beings. The soloist of the symphony was the crude laughter pouring out of Eren’s lips, the scathing humor of the situation all too much to bear as laughter accompanied the saltwater that was so _easily_ falling from his tear-ducts. 

Well, that _was_ the case up until his voice cracked.

“Cut!” Levi shouted through a megaphone, his scowl practically audible through the three lettered word.

“Sorry!” Green eyes cringed, twisting his face up in regret as he hoped squeezing his eyes shut would hide himself from the embarrassment. He heard a giggle behind him, Eren fluttering his eyes open to peer at his costar behind him, sitting up from digging his elbows into fake grass. He was stern. “ _What?_ ”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Mikasa smiled, the stoic and cold facade of “ _Mikasa Ackerman, the woman worth one-hundred soldiers,_ ” immediately fading away to unveil the smiley and warm atmosphere of Mikasa Ackerman, leading actress of the hit television show, _Attack on Titan_. “Hannes just seems pissed off.”

“That’s an understatement,” the scruffy blonde walked over from the unreasonably large, silicone hand that just ripped Mr. Hannes in half within the cruel reality that resided within Paradis Island. “This is my final scene, y’know—the Mona Lisa of my career thus-far!”

“It wasn’t that good of a performance—you can fake death _so_ much better.” A stern voice came, Eren feeling himself tense up at the sound. Grayish-blue eyes narrowed at the brunette, a _tsk_ sound hardly audible as he began to speak. “As far as you, Yeager, are you needing a few years to finish puberty before we try that scene again?”

He scowled, somehow infuriated with the man and yet terrified of him at the same time. “No. My bad. I’ll get it next time.”

“How about this, we’ll have Mikasa do most of the talking,” Levi turned around, waving his arms at the different employees adjusting the set—fake grass adjusted to look real, actors having their faces sprayed with water to mimic sweat, and the copious amounts of fake blood that was littered throughout the green-screened set (the concoction of food coloring and corn syrup was Eren’s personal least favorite since it always stained his hands). “Let’s do the dumb scarf scene.”

Eren glanced over to look at the girl, eyes blinking rapidly as she bit her bottom lip and her demeanor suddenly awkward. “I thought we were scheduled to film that next week, so I didn’t exactly… memorize all the lines.”

“Improvise it, then,” the man shrugged, his eyes quickly scanning a clipboard in his hands. “We’re on a tight schedule today ‘cause management decided to reschedule the season three table reading to tomorrow afternoon.”

“Ugh, why?” Eren groaned, squinting up to stare at the set lights above him. He couldn’t tell if the sweat beading on his forehead was from the water sprayed on him or the heat protruding from the lights. “That wasn’t supposed to be for another week and a half.”

“If you have a problem with it, then talk to the higher-ups,” the man rolled his eyes, his gaze focussing back on the girl adjacent to Eren. “As I said, just try the scene out. Throw in improv if you have to. If you guys do a shit job, then we’ll re-film it another time or somethin’.”

Hannes and Levi walked away, leaving the only occupants on the fake, bloody grass to be Mikasa and Eren. He watched her eyebrows furrow underneath her bangs and her mouth slanted deep in thought.

“Hey,” Eren smirked reassuringly, leaning forward and shrugging. “You’ve got this.”

She smiled softly, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. It was funny watching the girl shift characters—no, funny was the wrong word. It was fascinating, utterly enticing how she would take a deep breath and suddenly transform into the calm and collected Mikasa Ackerman. Her little eyebrow crinkle ceased, smooth skin serving as the substitute.

He thought perhaps he should also get into character, to become the edgy little piece of shit who bore too much responsibility on his shoulders. It was ironic, how Eren’s character was a consistent ball of anger in contradiction to how laid-back he was in reality; however, the constant work that filled the day _was_ inspiring exhaustion, therefore leading to a consistent annoyance, so it wasn’t _too_ hard to conjure up the tenacious, fiery spirit of Eren Yeager. He positioned himself back on the floor again, grimacing at how the fake grass itched his elbows too much. Perhaps Paradis Island’s Eren would complain about that as well, arguing they should at least film in a _real_ grassland since their makeshift crew could never imitate the true havoc titans were responsible for.

“All right,” Levi spoke through the megaphone once more, Eren glancing up from the ground for just a moment to listen intently to the words as he reset the tone of the set. “You guys better make this emotional. You _just_ watched Hannes get eaten, Eren finished having a complete breakdown and is at an incredibly low point in his life and confidence. Mikasa sees Eren’s anguish and feels it’s her duty to remind him of his worth, yadda, yadda, yadda… You guys catch my drift?”

“Yes, sir!” He heard Mikasa yell up, her voice a steady, strong note. Eren allowed the upper corner of his lips to twitch into a smirk for a split second, admiring how fast the girl was able to get into character.

“Action!”

“Listen to me, Eren,” he blinked slowly, face lifting up from the ground to face the next in line for humanity’s strongest, tears in the corners of her eyes. He didn’t speak. Well, _duh_ , he wasn’t scripted to speak, but he was at a loss for words. _Fuck, she’s a good actor_ , he swallowed, watching the girl look down at her knees bashfully before flicking up to intently stare into green, his guts twisting a little as she did so. “There’s something I want to say.”

He shifted his torso to face the girl slightly, blinking and feeling the Adam’s apple on his neck bob as he swallowed once more. His mouth hung slightly agape as he conjured up the intimacy of the moment shared between the two childhood friends.

“Thank you for being with me.”

She smiled, and Eren practically felt his eyes dilate, the black pupils against his green obviously growing. Sure, he’d seen the girl smile before given the fact that they were good friends outside of work, but something was different this time. She was… Pretty. Well, _duh_ , she had to be. She was one of the leading roles, and—although it was wrong to be a considering factor—part of the reason as to _why_ she was hired was _because_ of her attractiveness, and Eren knew that.

Well, he knew she was pretty, _sure_ , but it never crossed his mind to actually pay attention, his oblivious nature much more headstrong than Eren could ever be. But the face he had seen and grown close to time and time again looked different, this time. He noticed the softness of her skin, how unscathed, how _delicate_ her complexion managed to appear despite the prosthetic scar underneath her eye and the artificial sweat beading on her forehead. His eyes danced across her long eyelashes, confused at how each slow blink managed to blow him away and pull him in at the same time.

“Thank you,” her voice was sounded weak, but the words were strong, “for teaching me how to live.”

But those long lashes were _nothing_ compared to the glossiness of her eyes. Subtracting the tears she kept from falling, the two inky orbs somehow reflecting everything in the room as if a mirror, set lights and all creating a blinding reflection that left him blinded from… beauty. The beauty of the ever-present gaze in her eyes. The beauty of the subtle hibiscus rising to her cheeks. The beauty of chapped lips turning into a soft smile that held so much impact sewn within her rosy lips. The beauty of her graceful hand lifting halfway in the air as if to pull him in or to grab onto something. Why was her hand up like that, anyways? He couldn’t remember what the script wanted her to do—his mind was blank.

He could only stare at her, lips slightly parted in awe as she grew closer to him, the warmth of her breath just a few painful _inches_ , away from him. He didn’t know why he was nervous—why the simple _look_ in those big, inky eyes made him feel like he was waltzing in the clouds, the sound of her shaky syllables the symphony that struck a chord in him he didn’t understand even a little bit.

She looked like a painting, her skin spotless paper while her hair and eyes were _carefully_ brushed against the white, her creator oh so hesitant to blot any part of his creation. He knitted his brows together, lost in each strand of her hair, each brush of ink as the inches separating their faces grew less and less.

“Thank you…” Mikasa’s eyes abandoned his for a brief moment, a finger curling around the red scarf around her neck, and he watched her flutter back up to him, smiling with teeth and everything, “for wrapping this scarf around me!”

Eren felt his stomach flutter and his heart beating at a dangerously fast rate as her face only grew closer and closer, that damn smile all too close for his fluttering insides to handle. This was acting, right? This was nothing but innocent acting, right?

_Line! Your line! Say your line, you idiot!_

He squeezed his eyes shut for a brief moment, inhaling deeply and standing up from the itchy grass with a clenched fist. 

“I’ll wrap you up in it again.” 

He looked past his shoulder to see the painting shift, her eyebrows lifted as it was now  _her_ turn to leave her mouth subtly agape. The sight made his heart flutter once more, and Eren Yeager felt deep inside of himself that he needed to protect that image—make it so absolutely no one could blemish her snow white skin or smudge her inky hair, not even the titans.

“Again and again forever.”

He lifted his fist in the air and opened his mouth to let out a—

“And scene!” He heard Levi call from a megaphone, Eren spinning on his heel to face the man who wore a smug smile. “Perfect. Take five, everybody. Let’s readjust to get the punch from a different angle.”

The boy blinked, mouth turning into the shape of a small _o_ when he felt a delicate hand pat him on the shoulder. Mikasa smiled. “That was really good, Eren!” He nodded his head and let out a hum in response, watching the painting walk off the itchy grass to grab herself a water-bottle.

That was all acting, right?


End file.
